7 Questions to Ask When Choosing LED Fixtures

Confused by LED lighting? Here are 7 considerations for picking LED lighting fixtures for your next lighting installation.

1. What area are you lighting?

Consider both the region of your building (shop floor, carport, office, and so on) and the ceiling height. Higher ceilings can house bigger high-bay lighting fixtures containing more LED tubes per fixture. Also, certain areas, for example, work desks, may require lights with covers (lenses) that diffuse the light and decrease glare.

2. What general impact would you like to accomplish with your new lighting?

Does each work area require isolated lighting? Should the installations be exclusively controlled (every apparatus on a different switch or circuit)? Should the installations be recessed (such as inside a drop ceiling), surface mounted to the ceiling or hanging by chains?

3. What color light do you require?

Color temperature alludes to the shade of light, estimated in degrees Kelvin (K). White light ranges from cool white to warm white or from 3000K to 6500K. At 3000K, the light is hotter and yellowish in shading. On the opposite end of the range, at 6500K, the lights have a cooler tone and a blue-ish tint. Natural or Daylight bulbs are rated at 4500K.  Consider if there are existing lights in the area where you are placing new fixtures. Do you want the colors to match?

4. How bright should your light be?

We are altogether familiar with utilizing watts to gauge the brilliance of light. With LED Lighting, we gauge brightness by lumens instead. Lumen is the estimation of brilliance as seen by the human eye. The bigger the lumen number, the brighter the LED light.

5. What is the energy usage of the lighting fixtures and does it fit your energy budget?

Wattage reveals to us how much power we are expending while the lights are on, and thus the amount we'll need to pay in energy costs each month. The lower the wattage of the LED light, the less power it expends.

6. What electrical hook-ups do your installations require?

Can your new lighting installations be hardwired into the building’s electrical framework or do they need to have their own external wiring, such as a plug-in cord? Would you require remote controls to turn on the fixtures or would a switch be preferable?

7. Does your lighting installation require protection from moisture?

The IP rating system rates an item on its capacity to work in various moisture conditions. IP is an acronym for "Ingress Protection". It is an estimation of the protection an item will have dust, sand, soil, and fluids.  Orilis Vapor Tight LED Fixtures are appraised IP65 = Water resistant. "Shielded against water jets from any angle".